Paráxenos: 漂流剣士
by Yun-Seo
Summary: Mitsuhide is a wanderer. A lost boy among the crowd, a lost swordsman among the shinobi, and he didn't ask for this. Whereas a boy trained to be a samurai became a wanderer and now adopted as a fellow fighter for the Village that is full of ninja, tree-hugger ninja. But there's Kakashi, then I guess it's fine. (SI-OC; Warning: Spelling and Grammar)
1. Chapter 1

_"One cannot step twice in the same river."_  
_— Heraclitus_

* * *

1: Flee

* * *

_"... Why?"_

_I __asked, but she didn't respond, she all but clutches my hand and whispers,_

_"May the blessings of Daikoku guide you."_

_The dying woman smiled, her large companion just stared at her unblinkingly, I gripped her clothes as I weep._

...

_**A**__**ge: 7**_

"Cub, you need to get up."

Old, raspy voice jerked me awake. My own grey eyes met aquatic blue ones.

"Get up." The humanoid feral panther commanded, "The old fool requested your presence." Before puffing away.

I stared at the last trance of smoke before getting up and heading downstairs. I rubbed my eyes with the heel of my hand and let a large yawn escape my lips.

"I have seen that you are now awake, boy."

I grunted as I looked up, seeing an old balding man smiling at me. He hummed for a second before speaking, "Wear lesser clothes. We will start training."

I stared at him in bafflement, he looked at me with amusement dancing in his coal eyes. "We're in 'Land of Iron'." I pointed out idly.

He hummed again before nodding, "Yes. I know."

_"It's snowing."_

"Exactly." He chuckled and stared at me. "I am not joking. I will teach you how to conduct your chakra through your partner." He waved his hand at the resting katana on the wall.

"You are exceptionally genius in wielding a sword as you are now needed to train your chakra." He acknowledged, "Sending your chakra through your body _unconsciously _is not thoroughly great. You might ended up broken before knowing it, boy."

"I suck at controlling chakra."

"Isn't that what you said when I started training you kenjutsu? Get ready, Mitsuhide." He then started to walk away.

"Understood, shishou."

...

"Throwing unwanted childish tantrums now, I have seen. You will not pass greater fits if you decidedly continue this, boy."

I grumbled and looked at him, he smiled at me, understanding the look I've sent to him. He gestures at his body, only wearing a pair of pants without a top. "Chakra, boy."

"Why?" I complained.

"Life." He simply answered.

I sighed.

...

**_Age: 8_**

I looked outside, snow continuously falling down the land.

"Have you caught it?" I asked, "The news, I mean. There are rumors that a group of samurai hunting down a man."

The old man raised a brow, before shrugging it off and handing my sword back towards me. I grabbed the black handle and unsheathed it from its black scabbard.

"You polished Kaname-ishi?" I said in awe, the polished blade glinting from the light.

"Of course, she needed it." He responded.

...

Explosion woke me up from oblivion, I stood up, grabbing my sword before running downstairs.

"Shishou-"

_"Nobunaga."_

I halted from the voice addressing my teacher. I peeked from the stairs and- what is _happening?_

"Ah. Hello there, boy. I must apologize but barging here right into my territory is quite disrespectful-"

"You have no territory here on this land. Nobunaga, as you have no rights in staying here."

Shishou smiled, before waving his hand.

"I have seen, indeed. Boy, take your sword and flee."

_What?_

The unnamed samurai unsheathed his sword, _"How dare y-!"_

Shishou quickly intercepted the sword with his own before glancing at the stairs. His smile vanished and replaced with blank, unemotional mask. A suffocating mass of air spreads out inside of the room then vanished, shishou smiled then ordered,

"Mitsuhide. Flee."

...

I ran, snow crunching under my cold feet. Sword completely unsheathed and dripping with blood, I can already taste the pang of iron in my own mouth.

But I continued to run,

I ran, I ran, _I ran-ranran_**_ranRanrANRAN_**-

Then, it's black.

...

I woke up, as a man with white and red hat staring down at my form.

"Greetings, child. Do you know where you at?"

I glanced around, noticing the wires attached on my skin and tilting my head to the window.

Mountain with sculptured heads are drawn.

"... Konohagakure?"


	2. Chapter 2

_"I want to be like water. I want to slip through fingers, but hold up a ship."_

_\- Michelle Williams_

* * *

_2: Safe_

* * *

_"Listen to me, boy."_

_I jerked my head upwards, seeing shishou smiling at me._

_"Shinobi and Samurai have different ideals," he started, "Us, samurai, uses __**ninshu**__, whereas a belief that were meant to give people a better understanding of themselves, as well as others, and lead the world into an 'era of peace'._

_We seek no fights and wars, as we all wanted the peace throughout the land._

_We don't exactly kill for living, as we follow the teachings of the ninshu and bushido, '__**_Rectitude is one's power to decide upon a course of conduct in accordance with reason, without wavering; to die when to die is right, to strike when to strike is right._**__'._

_We don't use the ninshu to take advantage from others, we use it to communicate- live in harmony." He hummed, "Unlike the shinobi._

_Shinobi, courtesy of what happened decades ago, uses ninshu and as it started to form and become _**_ninjutsu_**_, a usage to fight, to kill, to be victorious from wars. Simply, a corrupted way of using ninshu. Different ways of using ninshu started to born awake, and slowly, little by little, the teachings of the true ninshu would be vanish._

_And that's why the samurai and shinobi came into understanding, __**to not lay a hand to each other's throats**__. Though, there are still handful of samurai fight the course of shinobi- resulting to their own early deaths._

_We don't bow our heads down to shinobi, but we respect their own beliefs, remember that. We only bow our heads down to our master, to the teachings, to the __**creed**__."_

_Then he chuckled, "Though it is different when it comes to us, I have seen."_

_..._

"... Konohagakure." I spoke out, thoughts of what shishou told me years ago came exploding in my mind. _We respect their own beliefs._

"Pale extortion of skin, heavy accent of words and sweat started to be visible in your form- you are not from here, Land of Fire, are you?"

The old man with hat questioned, I stared, masked shinobi flocking his sides just like what sheeps do.

"L-Land of Iron." I willed my voice out and started to cough, the hoarseness of my throat itches. The old man waved his hand, a masked shinobi came with a glass of water. I held it in both of my hands, _it might had poison._

The old man smiles, "Figures, fret not, your large companion already explained what situation you are in." _What? _"I allow you to be treated here in my land. You are Nobunaga's sole student, yes?"

I looked up, confusion whirling in my grey eyes. "You do k-know shishou?" I asked, my voice cracked mid-sentence.

"Indeed, I do. He is my sparring partner in teens." He mused, "We spar kenjutsu, no ninjutsu involved. I met him when he's wandering village to villages with his own teacher, turns out that his teacher is the one who introduced kenjutsu to my own teacher." He told, "He had different beliefs, different from samurai's and shinobi's." The old man stated, "He did teach you his beliefs, right?"

I nodded, he carefully looked at me. "He is a notable samurai, I noted back then and he still is."

"He's dead." I stated, pressure weighing down my shoulders.

"I know." He slowly worded the sentence, "I do now know. No worries, you are welcome here, nonetheless. After your recovery, you can decide yourself if you are staying inside the walls of Konoha or not."

He stepped back, before dipping his head, I mirrored him, "Enjoy your stay for the time being. I am the Kage of this land-" I almost spilled the glass of water in my hands, "-and also, it's not poisonous." He pointed at the glass with his finger, amusement curved in his smile.

He walked out, shinobi vanished from the walls, except for the three who surrounded the Kage.

The door closed.

I exhaled a large puff of air and gulped the water hungrily, then putting it back down from the table near the hospital bed.

_Why__? __I'm all alone now._

_"Cub."_

I choked out to the sound behind me, a large, humanoid black feral panther emerged from the shadows, its cold aquatic blue orbs gazing down to my form.

"Cub." It repeated sitting down beside me.

"Yuugure...?" I whispered, clutching the black fur of the said panther, my vision began to blur.

Yuugure butted on my chest, purring loudly, "_Cub_. You're safe now."

Unknowingly, I sniffled, rubbing my nose in lame fashion, the panther just stayed on his position, just keep on purring, hidden affection started to show. "You are _here_. You don't need to run away now."

Tears fell, the cries I didn't know I bottled up came crashing down to my form.

_Death of my shishou._

_Unwanted killings I admitted to do._

_Running away with cowardice in my shadows-_

We stayed there, Yuugure purring to calm me down, myself trying to stop the tears from falling down.

A part of myself began to flourish again.

_I'm glad._

...

Hiruzen watched the two from the glass ball, before puffing a smoke out from his pipe.

"Shikaku, submit me a file for their temporary stay. Inoichi, prepare yourself for your family-friendly interrogation."

The addressed men nodded. One moved slowly, the other one sighed.

"We had long awaited day for us."


	3. Chapter 3

_"Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous."_

_\- Plato_

* * *

_3: Welcome_

* * *

"-I'm going to skelp yer wee behind-!"

"-Leame 'lone-!"

"Haud yer _wheesht!_"

_"Haud yer arse!"_

_"Oh ye gannae haver now, ar'ye!?" _The black panther snarled, holding the protesting boy in his paws, the nurse now hiding behind the ANBU Fish, food on her hands.

The ANBU sweatdropped, this... is the most heaviest accent he ever heard during an argument, he heard the boy say '_Naw_' and calmed down. The panther huffed before glancing at them.

"The boy's calm now. Give him the food." Before puffing away. The ANBU looked over the nurse, the nurse looked back at him pleadingly.

He sighed and grabbed the tray of food, the boy huffed and accepted it. He nodded over the nurse before vanishing _again_ from the walls.

He didn't sign up for this.

...

_Inoichi didn't sign up for this._

Shikaku snorted behind him, he scowled then lightly coughed.

"Okay, kid. I'm just gonna ask you some questions and you will answer them, okay?"

_"Dare to hurt the cub, I'll maul you."_

Inoichi's smile twitched, "Don't worry _hyou_-san, I will not." He glanced at the resting panther on the floor, one sharp aquatic blue eye watches every move he makes, the boy kicked the beast lightly.

"'Kay." The boy answered. Then looked at him. Inoichi smiled again.

"Name?"

"... Mitsuhide."

"Last name?"

"None that I've known of."

"Age?"

"Eight. Birthday's Tenth of March."

Inoichi hummed, taking down the answers with his paper, "Parents?"

"Mother's a ninja, father's a... rounin."

"Isn't that allowed?"

The panther growled at him, Mitsuhide nudges it, "Calm down Yuugure, he's just asking." The boy whispered then looked back at him, "I know. But they don't care, mother's a missing-nin, by the way."

Inoichi paused, Yuugure growled again.

"... Their names?"

"Dunno."

"Their looks, do you remember them?"

Mitsuhide hummed, shuffling quietly from his position, "Mother has black eyes and spiky brown hair, father has grey eyes and wavy black hair, he had a scar on his left eye. I saw it on a picture."

"Do you have the picture then?"

"No, its Shishou's."

Inoichi nodded, "Shishou, who might that be?"

"Nobunaga-shishou, taught me kenjutsu and some samurai-techniques, some chakra-techniques too, considering of my mother's heritage. Shishou's dead."

"Affiliation?"

"Land of Iron. I guess Konohagakure now?"

He chuckled, "Uh-huh. Alright then, do you consider yourself as a shinobi?"

Mitsuhide grimaced, "No. But I know their few techniques, though I only use them to aid me out, not to kill."

"You're a samurai then?"

Mitsuhide's grimace deepens, "... Rounin."

"I see, do you want to live here?"

"I guess? I left Land of Iron now."

"Do you want to be a shinobi?"

The answer is so quick and flat, Shikaku barked a laugh,_ "No."_

Mitsuhide added, "Though if the village treated me right, I guess I'll protect it too, as a Samurai, of course. But, I'm not gonna bow down to all shinobi, even the Kage, but I will respect the all of you. I prefer ninshu over ninjutsu as I also prefer Code of the Samurai over Code of the Ninja."

Inoichi smiled, "Alright. That's into it. Though, may I ask, who's your companion?"

The panther snarled, Mitsuhide grinned. "This is Yuugure! A panther-summon. Mother's contracted with him and _only him_, and that's a special case, I can't exactly unsummon him, but he will be if the contractor died. I'm contracted with him too, before mother died. And that's why he's still here with me."

Inoichi nodded, then gestured Shikaku to come over, Shikaku pulled a scroll then unruffled it, a puff was heard and in Shikaku's grasp is a sword.

Mitsuhide gasped, visibly brightened, _"Kaname-ishi!"_

Shikaku gave the sword to the boy before speaking, "You'll get discharged after three days. I will accompany you to your assigned house for now."

The boy grinned up at him, "Thanks a lot, sir."

"Don't trouble about it, kid."

...

"The boy's adorable." Inoichi muttered, Shikaku looked at him, "What, gonna adopt him now?"

Inoichi looked back, "No way. I got _Ino_ already. Maybe you _will _adopt him?"

"Nah. Boy's too sunny. He might overthrow the clan's shadows-" Inoichi laughed, "-and I don't want to see dead carcasses of the clan's deers lying down the grass courtesy of his grumpy companion."

"Troublesome for you?"

"Too troublesome."

...

Hiruzen looked over the files submitted by Inoichi, "Samurai among the Shinobi, huh? Interesting." Hiruzen hummed, then he grabbed a certain file about a scarecrow.

"ANBU Dog!" He yelled out before a swirl of leaves accompanied by a masked ANBU appeared.

"You are now officially off-duty to your ANBU ranks. You are now taking missions as a Jounin, not as an ANBU captain."

Hiruzen told the masked ANBU, and felt satisfied when he saw a small twitch of the said masked man's body. The man slowly pulled his porcelain mask off, revealing heterochromatic eyes, being dark grey and red and defying-gravity silver hair. He placed his mask on the table, Hiruzen nodded.

"I will assign you to a mission- to be the temporary guardian of this boy." The old man handed the file to the other's hand, the man scans the file, staring at the face of pale skin boy with grey eyes and spiky long black hair that is styled in a high pony tail. "The mission will be done when someone decided to be the kid's official guardian. Or _you _will be the willing parent of this orphan."

The silver haired man twitched again. Hiruzen smiled.

"That is all. You are dismissed."

Under the clothed mask, Kakashi huffed before vanishing.

_He will stalk his client first._

* * *

_Translations:_

_"I'm going to skelp yer wee behind-!" : ___**I'm going to smack your little bo**___**ttom-!**_

_"-Leame 'lone-!" : __**Leave me alone!**_

_"Haud yer wheesht!" : __**Hold your tongue!**_

_"Haud yer arse!" : __**Hold your ass!**_

_"Oh ye gannae haver now, ar'ye!?" : __**Oh you gonna talk rubbish now, are you!?**_

_'Naw' : __**No**_

_Hyou : __**Panther; Leopard**_

_Rounin : **Lord-less/**__**Masterless Samurai; Wanderer**_


End file.
